Norwegian oil fund hits growth target

Norway

OSLO, April 7, 2017 – The Norwegian central bank announced on Friday that for the first time since the inception of the country’s sovereign oil fund, total returns had surpassed the full inflow.

At the end of Q1 2017, cumulative returns amounted to 3.42 trillion (USD 397 billion) while cumulative inflow stood at NOK 3.38 trillion (USD 392 billion), central bank data published by local media showed. The fund’s full market value as of March 31 was NOK 7.9 trillion (USD 914 billion).

“Measured in Norwegian kroner, this was the third best quarter in the history of the fund,” fund CEO Yngve Slyngstad told journalists.

The news came as the fund, which is also the fifth-biggest investor in super-major BP, welcomed the firm’s decision to lower the pay of its CEO, Bob Dudley.

“The formulation in the discussion [BP] have had, and the motion […] is of ‘downward discretion’, which I think is more in line with what we are thinking about on this issue,” Slyngstad said in a separate interview with Reuters on Friday.